As interactive computing services, such as Web-based consumer services, have become cheaper to implement, the added cost imposed by various forms of direct payment has become prohibitive. As a result, many current interactive computing services utilize an advertising-based revenue model. However, advertising as a revenue source suffers from a fundamental vulnerability, in that advertisements can often be distinguished from the content or service that accompanies them and then removed. Indeed, it has been observed that users of interactive services often prefer to avoid advertisements altogether and will enthusiastically adopt technological measures that filter them out.
As an example in the field of television content distribution, various remote control-equipped video recording devices have been developed that enable viewers to skip advertisements in recorded content, to the point where advertisers and content providers have been motivated to seek alternative ways to ensure that advertisements reach viewers. One such solution that has seen a recent dramatic increase in use is “product placement,” in which flattering displays or mentions of products, which are effectively advertisements, are integrated into content in a way that makes them impossible to skip without substantially degrading the viewing experience.
However, in the case of Web-based services and other interactive computing services, the above problems are further complicated by significant flexibility provided by customer client platforms. For example, Web-based services can often be utilized with upgradeable applications that are capable of identifying a specific service, simulating a user's permissible requests to it, and then removing advertisements from the resulting responses using sophisticated custom-tailored filtering techniques. Accordingly, it is possible to create “shell services” that exploit Web-based services, such as e-mail or data storage, on a wholesale basis, thereby providing the underlying service, possibly in repurposed form, to customers at a fraction of the cost that the original services incur. For example, a shell service could be implemented to convert a free e-mail service into an advertisement-free cloud storage or messaging platform.
Such a shell service could earn revenue in a number of ways. For example, it could earn advertising revenue by presenting its own advertisements in lieu of those accompanying the underlying service. Because a shell service is generally less expensive to provide than its underlying service, it can use its increased margins to provide incentives to users to use the shell service, such as by reducing ad volume or providing extra services. Alternatively, a shell service can be designed completely ad-free, thereby giving users an attractive incentive to use it, and instead generate revenue in other ways. For example, such a shell service can utilize an e-mail or other messaging account of a user to send spam or perform other bot-like functionality for the shell service provider. However, in any such case, it can be appreciated that such a shell service utilizes the underlying service without allowing the provider of the underlying service to obtain advertising revenue associated with the service.
The current main line of defense of existing Web-based services against automated repurposing is the captcha, which is a task, such as recognition of an image or distorted characters, which is relatively easily performed by humans but significantly more difficult for computer programs. However, existing shell services can bypass such defenses by recruiting a user to solve any captcha encountered by the shell service. In fact, shell services can utilize such user recruitment as an additional source of revenue due to the economic value of captcha-solving as a means to obtain captcha-gated information. In addition, because standard captchas are often regarded as annoying by users, excessive use of them in order to render shell services unpalatable to users would likely render the underlying service equally unpalatable.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for techniques for implementing interactive computing services that mitigate at least the above shortcomings.